Social media like Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram is addictive. Recently, one of my best friends deleted all of her social media accounts in order to focus on school. I asked her why, and she gave me two reasons; she said that she felt stressed keeping up with it and that she found herself constantly comparing herself to others.
The truth is, she probably isn't the only one that feels this way. I was not only inspired by this decision, but it made me reflect on my own use of technology, and how it impacts my life. Social media has its positives and negatives. For many of us, social media is used not only to keep in touch with friends and family, but to keep up to date with news and current events as well. Overall, social media is a form of entertainment and it tends to impact peoples' lives more than we suspect. Here are some things to remember when you're scrolling through your news feed.
1. Living in the moment defines your life, not your number of 'likes.'
If the picture means something to you, don't subject yourself to others' opinions. I think that social media has made us more aware of our self-consciousness and opinion of things. Sometimes we get caught up in comparing posts with one another. It happens. In reality, memories aren't worth the Instagram likes, because the truth is that if it was a good moment caught in a glimpse, then the number of likes shouldn't impact how you feel about it.
2. Airplane mode is a great idea.
By constantly checking our phones, we are disconnecting ourselves from the real world and losing face-to-face connection. In a given day, if you pay attention, you'll see people using their phones in different situations. We tend to depend so much on our phone that when something happens to it, you tend to feel lost. If you think about it, we went from a "face-to-face" society to a "face-to-Facebook" society. By putting your phone on airplane mode from time to time, you won't miss out on notifications but rather postponing it to another time.
3. Put away your phone.
Instead of checking your notifications, try putting away your phone. It forces you to be present in the moment which relives the pressure of keeping up with the status updates. Go outside or spend time with your family. You'll find that when you go without you phone for awhile it feels great to not be connected; you feel free. By putting away your cellphone, you'll realize that the world is much bigger than what is on your screen.
